Guarantee Employment for over 62 year old Singaporeans?

[Lai CF]

Government may make buying annuity compulsory: Lim Boon Heng
By Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 14 August 2007 1745 hrs


SINGAPORE : The government may make buying annuity compulsory, said Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister-in-Charge of ageing issues.

Speaking to reporters after a National Day Observance ceremony at the Mitsuboshi Overseas Headquarters on Tuesday, Mr Lim said the government is looking to build the annuity component into Singapore's plan for the ageing population.

With longer life expectancy, Singaporeans will have to work longer, beyond the present retirement age of 62.

The government is considering a law on re-employment, to get employers to guarantee their employees a job once they reach 62.

But it may not necessarily be the same job or the same salary.

Mr Lim urged employers and employees to start preparing for the re-employment law as soon as possible.

This is because the law would provide only a framework and not spell out how re-employment should be done.

Besides working longer, another way to prepare for old age is to have a form of insurance that caters to a longer lifespan.

And one way to do this is by buying an annuity.

Said Mr Lim: "If you have a full minimum sum in CPF, when you withdraw the CPF, CPF will pay you $700 over a month. But it's for 20 years. At the end of 20 years, you'll have nothing to withdraw.

"If you buy an annuity, the insurance company will pay you less - $500 a month. But the insurance company will have to pay you for as long as you live. And if you live to 100 (years old), they'll have to continue paying you till you're 100. Therefore it's a lesser monthly sum but you're insured a little longer.

"We may have to make it compulsory for everyone, but I think for now, we should explain to people what annuities are and how people can benefit, to get people to understand it." - CNA /ls

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I support these 2 excellent initiatives:

1) Guarantee employment for thsoe over 62 year old Singpaorean

2) COmpulsory annuity TO SUPPLEMENT CPF Minimum Sum.

I am AGAINST using mandatory ANNUITY to replace CPF minimum sum.

What do you think?

[Exploited Worker]

No law should be passed to force anyone how to use their money. As it is,
the CPF is already bad enough. How can a minister or ministers passed
a DECREE to force citizens to buy insurance, in order to directly and
immediately benefit the insurance companies such as NTUC Income?

To me, this is cunning scheming to benefit themselves first, while we have
to wait for years before we can really see our money, and by which time
they may again change policies to delay it further and further and less
and less.

Do you know how much one will be able to get out of the annuity per month
when reaching the eligible age? The most you can get is around $400.
Factoring inflation into it, when you reach 70 years old in 20 years' time,
what would be the purchasing power for $400 per month?

Think about it. These self-enriching millionaires simply are going after our
money and trying to delay our withdrawal of CPF money as long as
possible.

I would never accept such a dirty trick to be passed into law.

[harry]

Whats the point? In the end NTUC Income will benefit from this ... not the people!

[greatknowledge]

SINGAPORE: A record number of older Singaporeans were employed in June last year, according to the latest report by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). About 47.8 per cent of the resident population aged 50 and above had jobs.

MOM said the bulk of the increase - 1.5 percentage points out of the 1.8-percentage point gain - stemmed from the entry of older people into the workforce.

Most sought employment because of financial considerations and found jobs in administrative as well as support services such as in the cleaning, security and F&B industries.

Despite the better numbers, MOM said there is still a sizeable pool of older residents outside the labour force, especially women.

In June 2007, about half or 495,300 residents aged 50 and above were economically inactive.

Narrow this down even further to the 50-64 age group, and the number of unemployed older women was more than triple compared to that of older men, at 169,200 and 50,500 respectively.

Two in three economically inactive women in this age group had either stopped working for at least a decade or had never worked before.

MOM said programmes aimed at encouraging older women back to work will therefore need to be complemented with skills upgrading and work preparation.

The ministry also said there is a need for availability of part-time and flexi-work arrangements to help encourage economically inactive residents to join the workforce.

The report is available online at www.mom.gov.sg/mrsd/publication.

The land transport sector is one of the more age-friendly employers. The National Transport Workers' Union says about 70 per cent of workers in the sector are above the age of 50.

And the numbers are set to go up, as Singapore's two major bus service operators - SBS Transit and SMRT - have extended the retirement age for drivers to 65. This has certainly helped to ease the manpower shortage within the industry.

Fang Chin Poh, the general secretary of the National Transport Workers' Union, said: "Currently (for) SBST and SMRT, the shortage of bus captains and bus service leaders is around 200 and 300 per day. So we encourage older workers to work."

He added that extending the retirement age of the drivers would also help them to become more active and so keep them healthy.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 03/1/.html

[harry]

shows that the younger dun make enough to support the old (their parents)

[happy]

No choice, older workers must work.
No economy so bad, lots of retrechment and jobless and high costs of expenses (BILLS or HOUSING LOANS), older workers cannot afford to be jobless.
Older workers are more desperate then younger pple.
Older workers got lots of heavy responsibilty. Lots of BILLS and LOANS to pay.
Older workers need jobs....urgently in 2009.

[Boy]

the old in singapor no hope really pity them...
last time when i was younger i love to go to macdonal and eat but now i rarely eat there cause can see old people work really pity them as at their age now they shold not work must enjoy their golden years but sadly not in singapor

one day all of us will be just like them

[happy]

We are having this aging problem same as Japan.
A big issue.
In about 30 to 40 yrs time, many aged pple in spore.
Many aged pple sick, ill, many pple hosiptalised.
All is money.
Big problem.

the old in singapor no hope really pity them...
last time when i was younger i love to go to macdonal and eat but now i rarely eat there cause can see old people work really pity them as at their age now they shold not work must enjoy their golden years but sadly not in singapor

one day all of us will be just like them

[Boy]

yes bro i agree with u...

when old we really got BIG problem with the medical expanses so EXPANSIVE...
bro can die but cannot get sick here in singapor cause we will BIG BURDEN to our children....

only hope we dont get sick too often when old

[happy]

Last night PM Lee also touches on this issue right?
I did not listen but watch dvd.

yes bro i agree with u...

when old we really got BIG problem with the medical expanses so EXPANSIVE...
bro can die but cannot get sick here in singapor cause we will BIG BURDEN to our children....

only hope we dont get sick too often when old